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<title>The power of love is a curious thing (make a one man weep, make another man sing) by sarahcakes613</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25476082">The power of love is a curious thing (make a one man weep, make another man sing)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahcakes613/pseuds/sarahcakes613'>sarahcakes613</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Law &amp; Order: SVU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic, Gratuitous Smut, M/M, Oral Sex, Quarantine Life, Rimming, Slice of Life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:14:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,063</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25476082</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahcakes613/pseuds/sarahcakes613</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Working from home during quarantine means this month's electricity bill is a lot higher than normal, and Rafael is not pleased. For some reason, it turns into smut.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>72</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The power of love is a curious thing (make a one man weep, make another man sing)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I was telling Mr. Cakes about how commenters occasionally want to know what happens after a fic ends (my answer is basically always I have no idea!) and he expressed the opinion that what comes next is mostly dull domestic life, "like, look, they're opening the power bill!" and then I needed an idea and Nads suggested I do something domestic and I decided to just run with the joke.</p>
<p>Title is from Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. It makes sense, shh.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sonny is just about to have his second shower of the day when he hears his name being called from the other side of the apartment. And it’s not being called with his husband’s usual tone, there’s no sweetness or heat to it.</p>
<p>He traipses out of the bathroom and down to Rafael’s home study. He’s still wearing his undershirt and boxer-briefs, but he wraps a towel around himself just in case Raf’s got his webcam open. He’s already made that mistake once, and that’s one Columbia student who saw way more of her advisor’s husband than she probably ever needed or wanted.</p>
<p>When he gets there, however, Raf’s laptop isn’t even on. He’s standing at his desk, a small stack of mail open in front of him. He’s holding a piece of paper in one hand, a letter opener in the other. It gleams metallic in the hot sunlight shining in through the window.</p>
<p>Rafael’s jaw is tensed and his hand is clenched around the letter opener. Sonny gulps.</p>
<p>“Everything okay, Rafi?” He asks.</p>
<p>Rafael turns to look at him and Sonny is taken aback at how angry he looks. His mouth is pressed into a thin line and his eyebrows are drawn together in a furrowed intensity.</p>
<p>“No, Sonny, everything is not okay,” He spits every word out. “Our electric bill is $350 this month.”</p>
<p>Sonny opens and closes his mouth. Their electric bill is usually half that. Rafael is waving the bill around, saying something, but Sonny doesn’t hear it because he’s focused on Raf’s other hand. Has the letter opener always been that sharp-looking?</p>
<p>“-onny. Sonny! Are you even listening?”</p>
<p>Sonny blinks. “Yeah, sorry, I’m listenin’. Do you want me to call ConEd, see what’s going on? Maybe something’s wrong with the hot water tank, and it’s sending wonky readings to the meter.”</p>
<p>Rafael squints at him, seeming to only now take in his state of undress.</p>
<p>“Were you about to get in the shower?”</p>
<p>“Uh, yeah? I have a video meeting with Judge Blake and defense on the McMartin case in an hour and I’ve been sweating all morning.”</p>
<p>“You had a shower when you woke up. Why didn’t you just wait if you knew you had a meeting this afternoon?” Rafael asks snippily.</p>
<p>Sonny holds up his hands, palms out, placating. “Come on, Raf, you know I don’t like putting on clean clothes if I haven’t showered. I wasn’t about to sit in my pyjamas all morning.”</p>
<p>Rafael glares at him and Sonny winces. Rafael has fully embraced the quarantine wardrobe, choosing to spend his days in t-shirts and sweatpants or shorts, only changing into a polo when he has Zoom classes, adding a jacket for departmental meetings.</p>
<p>“You’re going to have to get used to it, because I refuse to get another bill this high.” Rafael waves the bill around again. “I know we’re consuming more electricity because we’re home all day, but this is just absurd!”</p>
<p>Sonny does the mental arithmetic. They’ve both gone from being out of the house most of the day to being inside all day, running two home offices with computers and ceiling lights that need to be on more than usual. Adding to that is the fact that the summer heatwave has rolled into town, which means running the ceiling fans 24/7, as well as the window unit in the bedroom. They’ve also been doing more laundry, which combined with Sonny’s showers means more electricity on heating up water.</p>
<p>“And laundry, we’re doing too many half-empty loads. We’re wasting hot water; we can wash our masks by hand in the tub and wait til the hamper’s full before using the machine.”</p>
<p>Sonny bites his lip. “Most of our laundry has been the bedsheets, I’m not sure I wanna try washing those in the tub.”</p>
<p>Rafael finally tosses the bill down on the desk, followed by the letter opener. Sonny slowly lets out a sigh of relief as the pointy weapon drops from his husband’s hand.</p>
<p>“Then we’ll stop changing the sheets so much. Most people don’t, you know. We can change them once a week.”</p>
<p>Sonny stares at him, scandalized. “Rafi, you know I can’t sleep on sheets if we’ve been, y’know.”</p>
<p>Rafael stares back at him, his face expressionless.</p>
<p>“I can’t sleep on sheets that have cum stains on them Raf, no way. I can try to schedule my meetings so they’re closer to my morning shower, but I gotta draw the line at the laundry.”</p>
<p>“Okay, first of all, half of those cum stains are yours, and secondly, there’s an easy way to prevent sheets from being stained for a week.”</p>
<p>Sonny looks blankly at him and then Rafael’s implication dawns on him. His mouth falls open into a frown.</p>
<p>“You don’t wanna have sex with me?” He pouts at Rafael.</p>
<p>“That’s, what? No, Sonny, of course I do. We can both use condoms, or I don’t know, put towels down.”</p>
<p>“We’ve been married and monogamous for 3 years, I don’t think we have a single condom in this apartment.” Sonny points out.</p>
<p>“Look, I’m just saying, we either stop changing the sheets or we stop having sex. I know which one I’d prefer.”</p>
<p>The look Rafael gives him is heated, far hotter than the shower Sonny was about to take, but he really does need to redo his hair before the meeting, so he sticks a post-it on that mental note for later.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Later happens just after Sonny ends his video conference call, which had turned out to be one of those meetings that could just as easily been an email for how short it wound up being. He sends Hadid his report, wrapping up the case with a plea deal that has left nobody especially happy, but will at least mean some amount of justice going forward.</p>
<p>He strips off his shirt and tie. He hadn’t bothered with pants; he uses a sit-stand desk and the camera does not see anything below his torso. He’s back down to an undershirt and boxer-briefs as he leaves his own home office and taps on the closed door of Rafael’s.</p>
<p>“Mm.” Rafael replies, which is what he says when he’s focused, but it’s okay for Sonny to come in.</p>
<p>Sonny opens the door; Rafael is grading papers, peering at the large external monitor he’s hooked up to his laptop. The virtual submission portal has worked well for students, but Rafael had complained about the difficulty of reading so many papers on a small laptop screen until his chair agreed to reimburse him for a second screen.</p>
<p>Even with the larger screen and sized up font, Rafael is wearing his glasses, and Sonny bites his lip at the sight. His husband has been letting his beard grow out during quarantine, and even in a t-shirt with a stretched out collar, the salt and pepper beard and thick rimmed glasses spell Sonny’s favourite kind of naughty professor story.</p>
<p>“God, I wish you’d been one of my instructors at Fordham.” Sonny growls as he walks into the room.</p>
<p>Rafael looks over his shoulder, his eyebrows rising as he takes in Sonny’s lack of outfit.</p>
<p>“Oh, really?” He asks, swivelling his chair around to face Sonny. He’s wearing a pair of loose linen shorts, pale enough in colour that Sonny can tell there’s no second layer underneath.</p>
<p>“Mhm,” Sonny nods. “I probably wouldn’t have fallen asleep in so many classes.”</p>
<p>“Well, probably for the best I wasn’t,” Rafael says, reaching a hand out to stroke up Sonny’s thigh. “Sleeping with one of my students is a good way to be censured.”</p>
<p>Sonny shivers at the feeling of Rafael’s warm skin on his.</p>
<p>“Come on,” he says, reaching down and taking Rafael’s hand in his. “It’s too hot to fuck in your office. I’ve been out of the shower for 20 minutes and I’m already fucking sweaty again.”</p>
<p>“We can’t have that.” Rafael hums, standing up and crowding his body against Sonny’s. “It’d be much better if you were sweaty fucking.”</p>
<p>Sonny pushes Rafael back far enough to give him an unimpressed look. “Leave the bad puns to me, okay?”</p>
<p>He pulls Rafael down the hall and into the bedroom. The sheets are fresh as of that morning, and Sonny winces inwardly at the thought of getting them dirty and then sleeping on them. His husband steps up behind him, kissing up the back of his neck and down his shoulder.</p>
<p>“We could just take the sheets off,” Rafael murmurs, “put them back on after.”</p>
<p>“Won’t that be uncomfortable?” Sonny asks, distracted by the alternating soft of Rafael’s lips and bristling rasp of his beard.</p>
<p>“I don’t think so.” Rafael says, moving away to tug the fitted sheet off the mattress. The whole set is off in moments, and Sonny looks down at the white rough-nap of his naked bed.</p>
<p>Rafael strips himself as quickly, and Sonny hastens to catch up, pulling his shirt over his head and shoving his shorts down. The fan and window aircon are both running, and Sonny shivers as the cold air blows over him, cooling the drying water on his skin.</p>
<p>Rafael nudges him back onto the bed, and despite the roughness of the material, the mattress is cool under Sonny. He squirms, enjoying the scratch against his heated skin.</p>
<p>Rafael climbs onto the bed and kneels between Sonny’s open legs. Sweat is cooling on his skin and he is gleaming with it. Sonny’s mouth waters, wanting to lick the salt from Rafael’s body. He makes a grabby motion and Rafael laughs, lowering himself carefully so he is on top of Sonny, his weight on his hands at either side of Sonny’s shoulders.</p>
<p>Sonny leans his head up and swipes his tongue over Rafael’s nipple. His husband gasps, and then swears as Sonny latches on with his mouth, sucking and flicking his tongue across it.</p>
<p>“You taste so good.” Sonny mumbles against Rafael’s heat-damp skin as he releases Rafael’s nipple with a pop. The cold air blows across them, and Sonny shivers, which pushes his shoulders back into the mattress.</p>
<p>He’s surprised at how much he’s enjoying the cool rough texture, especially when it is counterbalanced by the slick silk of Rafael’s mouth as his husband lowers himself down Sonny’s body and kisses the soft skin of his inner thighs.</p>
<p>Sonny widens his legs further, planting his feet flat on the bed and arching his back, silently begging Rafael to pay attention to his rapidly thickening cock.</p>
<p>He doesn’t though, instead pushing Sonny’s legs back and ducking his head down, licking and kissing his way down the crease of his thigh and under his balls, down the line of his perineum to his ass.</p>
<p>Rafael loves Sonny’s ass, loves fucking it and kissing it and gripping it tight while Sonny fucks him, but he especially loves eating it out, and for that alone, Sonny knows Raf won’t really complain about his constant showers, because it means he is always clean, always ready for his husband’s tongue.</p>
<p>He shifts, drawing Sonny further down the bed, pushing his legs up so his ass is on display. He drapes one of Sonny’s legs over his shoulder, turning just a bit to rub at the skin of his inner thigh with his beard.</p>
<p>It’s bristly and sends a shiver down Sonny’s spine. Spread open like this, he feels exposed, feels the heady weight of his husband’s eyes on his body.</p>
<p>Rafael’s hands come up and gently pull apart his cheeks, exposing the dusky hidden opening. He returns to licking Sonny’s skin, dragging his tongue along the crease of Sonny’s cheeks, following the line of it until he is right there.</p>
<p>The flat of his tongue rasps against Sonny’s hole once, twice, continuing to lap at Sonny, sucking at his rim, wiggling the pointed tip of his tongue against Sonny’s tight hole. He rubs his chin against the spit-slicked skin of Sonny’s ass, and Sonny bucks at the feeling of the bristles against the most sensitive part of him.  He simultaneously wants to arch away and thrust into it.</p>
<p>His cock is desperate for friction, and he wraps a hand around himself, stroking in time with Rafael’s tongue strokes. Rafael bats Sonny’s hand away and he cries out.</p>
<p>“Rafi, please.”</p>
<p>“I’m not done,” Rafael murmurs, the words vibrating against Sonny’s ass. “And you’re not coming until I’m done.”</p>
<p>Sonny thrusts in reflex, he’s good at following orders, every order but that one. Every exposed inch of skin is starting to feel like a livewire, and he can feel an orgasm building inside of him, coiling at the base of his spine.</p>
<p>He is thrusting helplessly now, shoving his ass against Rafael’s face, and his husband takes it in stride, licking and sucking, fucking his tongue in as Sonny’s ass begins to relax and open up for him.</p>
<p>He works one spit-slick finger in next to his tongue and Sonny’s ass clenches down hard, making Raf groan.</p>
<p>“Fuck, Sonny, I love how tight you always are for me.” Rafael says, wiggling his finger, slowly fucking it in and out until Sonny is loose enough for two fingers.</p>
<p>“Yeah – always – yours,” Sonny can barely talk, is so focused on the tactile sensations of Rafael’s body against his.</p>
<p>With his fingers in Sonny’s ass, Rafael moves his mouth up, sucking at Sonny’s balls with a moan, lapping up the clean salty sweat.</p>
<p>He keeps going, drawing the tip of Sonny’s cock into the heat of his mouth, suckling on it, slurping at the precum as it leaks out. The noises almost embarrasses Sonny, Raf is moaning against his cock, his tongue working around the head, dipping into the slit and Sonny can’t stop his hips from thrusting again. His cock pushes further into Rafael’s mouth and his husband gags, more from surprise than anything, and pushes at Sonny’s hip in warning.</p>
<p>“M’ sorry,” Sonny gasps, “Fuck, I’m so close Rafi, I wanna come, please.”</p>
<p>Rafael doesn’t stop moving, his fingers fucking into Sonny’s ass, stroking against his prostate while his tongue continues to lap at Sonny’s cock, his lips stretched around Sonny’s thickness as he breathes through his nose, taking Sonny deeper into his mouth.</p>
<p>His husband prefers not to have Sonny come in his mouth but if he doesn’t let up, he’s not going to have much control over it, and Sonny tries to warn him.</p>
<p>“Raf, I’m gonna, I can’t wait, I’m – “ and then Rafael presses his fingers against Sonny’s prostate, stroking harder, and Sonny is done for.</p>
<p>His entire body tenses and he shakes with the force of his climax, his hips jerking up again as he pumps stream after stream of cum into Rafael’s mouth, down his throat. Rafael continues to work at him, sucking gently, softly now, cleaning up every trace of cum from Sonny’s cock until he’s swallowed every drop, before sliding off with a pop.</p>
<p>Sonny lowers his legs down with a groan, and Rafael straddles him, stroking his own thick cock as he stares down at his husband’s face.</p>
<p>“Can I come on you?” Rafael asks, and Sonny nods dazedly.</p>
<p>“As long as you don’t mind me having a third shower.” He adds, and Rafael huffs a choked laugh even as he nods.</p>
<p>“Fine, fuck – you can – fuuuuuck.” He lets out a long moan as his cock pulses in his hand and then shoots across Sonny’s chest, streaks of white splattering his rosy-pink skin.</p>
<p>He sits back on Sonny’s thighs, chest heaving as he catches his breath.</p>
<p>“You swallowed.” Sonny says in amazement.</p>
<p>Rafael shrugs. “You didn’t want to make a mess. It seemed like the obvious solution.”</p>
<p>Sonny laughs. “Well, thanks for the consideration, I guess. Come on, lemme up, I’m starting to get crusty.”</p>
<p>Rafael stands up and walks into their en suite bathroom to run the shower. Sonny comes up behind him, reaching over to test the water temperature. It’s cooler than he prefers, but they have worked up a warm sweat, and their hot water tank could admittedly probably use the break.</p>
<p>He looks in surprise as Rafael steps into the shower and holds the glass door open for him.</p>
<p>“You’re going to shower with me?” He asks.</p>
<p>“We’ll conserve water this way.” Rafael answers, which they both know is a lie, given how often shared showers end with one of them up against a tiled wall as the water runs forgotten and cold behind them.</p>
<p>He smiles mischievously at Sonny and holds up a loofah. “Get in, I’ll scrub your back.”</p>
<p>Sonny gets in, and stands under the tepid water as Rafael soaps him up. Neither of them has been particularly enjoying the way quarantine has changed their lives, and it’s pretty clear to both of them that the new normal isn’t going anywhere.</p>
<p>He does feel grateful that they both have job security, and even at an increased rate, their electric bill isn’t going to be what breaks the bank, but he knows Rafael is right, and they need to make some changes to their lifestyle to accommodate their increased time at home.</p>
<p>He’ll send an email to his legal secretary tomorrow about his calendar, telling her to try and book his meetings as close together as possible, at least until the heat wave ends and he isn’t sweating through his shirts by midday.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Sonny says, breaking the quiet of the shower. “I really am gonna try and be better about the hot water.”</p>
<p>“I know, sweetheart.” Rafael smiles up at him. “And I have every faith you’ll succeed.”</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>Rafael nods as he draws the loofah over Sonny’s skin. He skims it just barely over his cock and Sonny hisses at the mild sting.</p>
<p>“If only because if you can get it back down to our usual monthly charge, you’ll get a very special reward.”</p>
<p>Sonny shivers. When Rafael says very special reward, he usually means something they can use in bed, something they’ve been talking about, or something Rafael’s seen that he wants to try with Sonny.</p>
<p>“Can I get a hint?”</p>
<p>Rafael smirks and gently wraps his thumb and forefinger around Sonny’s soft cock, behind his balls. He shivers again.</p>
<p>It’s going to be a long sweaty month of shorter showers and trying not to dirty the sheets, but god is it going to be worth it.</p>
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